Nokia phone explodes while charging

INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORKNov 30, 2007, 12.34pm IST

A New Zealand man was woken in the middle of the night when his cell phone battery exploded and burst into flames. Norman Sievewright told New Zealand's TVONE television news channel that he was asleep in bed when he woke to a loud bang and found his cell phone battery in flames on the carpet. The phone had been charging while he was asleep.

"It was very scary ... especially the fumes and stuff. The back has been blown off the phone," he told the channel. Nokia has asked for the phone so that the fault can be investigated. The company, however, refused to comment until it said they know what exactly caused the fire. At this time, it is not known which model of Nokia handset was involved.

In August, Nokia had issued an advisory about faulty batteries in some of its phones. It said 46 million Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries were vulnerable to a short circuit that could cause them to overheat while recharging, and offered to replace them for customers who are concerned.

Nokia did not issue a recall and said incidents had occurred with only a tiny fraction of phones -- 100 out of the 46 million. The batteries were manufactured by Japan's Matsushita Battery Industrial and sold in a wide range of Nokia devices.